On Indian Country Today, Steven Newcomb examines the history of terrorism as a method employed by empires and states against Indigenous nations and peoples. As the foremost tool for enlarging their territories and maintaining control over them, terrorism by empires and states deploys the psychology of fear against all opponents. In the case of the American Empire, that takes the form of national security laws like the one President Obama signed in December, allowing him to detain US citizens without charge or trial.
As Newcomb notes, national security laws in the US are a well-designed plan to silence dissent, and as the successor to the British Empire in North America, the American Empire is rooted in the terrorism of its imperialism. For Indigenous nations in the United States, the extinction of civil rights by President Obama should be a terrifying warning; for Indigenous activists, it is a clarion call for Common Sense Security.
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